I can't explain how I missed: Adebayor on his howler and the plan to make amends in Italy

Last updated at 17:08 21 February 2008

Emmanuel Adebayor spoke of his shock after his astonishing miss in the last seconds of Arsenal's goalless draw with AC Milan last night.

The Togo striker inexplicably headed a beautiful cross from substitute Theo Walcott against the bar in injury time in the first leg of the last 16 Champions League tie.

It means Arsenal will have to secure a score draw or become the first English team to beat Milan in the San Siro if they are to progress to the quarter-finals when the teams meet again in a fortnight.

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Where did I go wrong? Emmanuel Adebayor's anguish after hitting the crossbar deep into added time

However, Wenger had better news on Kolo Toure when he learned the central defender could be back in action sooner than originally

thought, and may even be in contention for the second leg against Milan on March

4.

"For me on Wednesday night it looked like he would be out for two to four

weeks. The way he was walking perhaps four - but today the medical staff said to

me it would be closer to two than four," the Arsenal boss told Arsenal TV.

While Toure's prognosis is clearly more positive, the Arsenal manager maintains

he will not be pushing Robin van Persie into a swift return.

Wenger said: "No. Robin is not a very long away from being fit at

all, but he lacks match-practice.

"Could he be in the squad for Milan? Maybe - but don't forget he has not

played regularly for five months now."

Adebayor said he just could not account for his last-minute miss in front of goal: "That is football, and is what we are made of. Sometimes everything is okay, and sometimes the ball just does not want to go into the net.

"I had an amazing chance, but I put the ball onto the bar. The most important thing is to be creating the chances. Hopefully I will put one in at the San Siro. We know it is going to be very difficult in Milan, but we are ready for it."

Young Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas admitted the San Siro was already one of the toughest places to visit, even without the loss of Toure.

"Milan is the hardest place to get a result, definitely," said Fabregas. "It's very difficult. They have a lot of experience, they know how to play, they defend very well, they are very intelligent. They never play around. If they have to kick it out, they will.

"We missed a chance last night but I still think 0-0 is not a bad result. If we score a goal there they have to score two, so we have a good opportunity if we play well.

"Having seen what we have seen last night we can cope with their pace, their experience and we can create chances."

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On the pull: Adebayor with his shirt clearly being tugged by a defender sees his header rebound away

Fabregas was not unhappy with Arsenal's performance in the draw, particularly in light of the weekend mauling at Old Trafford.

He added: "After a big defeat at the weekend we came back well and came back strong. We can't forget, we didn't play against an average team. We played against a top side like Milan and even then we played well, we had more opportunities, we played better, had more possession, we tackled. we did everything right.

"Unfortunately, sometimes in football the difference is you don't put the ball into the back of the net and we didn't do that."